An indefatigable seam bowler, Ethy Mbhalati was a stalwart at Centurion, where he played for 13 seasons. He racked up 129 first-class caps, the same number of List A matches and 92 T20 games, taking 594 wickets across all formats. That long career was ended when he as implicated in the match-fixing scandal in South Africa's T20 tournament in the 2015-16 summer.

Mbhalati made his debut in the 2002-03 season and at first made an impression in limited-overs cricket. In March 2008, Mbahlati became the first South African to claim a hat-trick in T20 franchise cricket. In that year's T20 competition, Mbhalati was the second-highest wicket-taker with 14 wickets at 14.21. He was third overall in the 2009-10 List A competition with 16 scalps at 19.12 and, in the 2010-11 season, Mbhalati was second on the first-class wicket-takers' list with 39 scalps at 20.58.

His consistency, accuracy and unwavering ability to bowl spell after spell were all worthy characteristics but in a country rich with bowling talent, Mbhalati did not get the opportunity for higher honours. In 2014, Mbhalati was given a benefit year by his franchise as his career seemed to be reaching its twilight stages but he stayed on as a senior player for another season.

On August 1, 2016, Mbhalati was banned for ten years for receiving a payment to fix in the 2015-16 Ram Slam tournament.Firdose Moonda

ABOUT COOKIES

We use cookies to help make this website better, to improve our services and for advertising purposes. You can learn more about our use of cookies and change your browser settings in order to avoid cookies by clicking here. Otherwise, we'll assume you are OK to continue.